Dr. Sarah Naramore

Assistant Professor

Education

• Ph.D. History of Science; University of Notre Dame
• A.B. History and Biology; Lafayette College

Courses Taught

• 33155 U.S. History to 1877
• 33156 U.S. History since 1877
• 33301 The Historian’s Craft and Its Uses
• 33522 The American Colonies
• 33524 The Early American Republic
• 33591 Research Seminar in History

Academic Interest

I am a historian of medicine and the early American republic interested in the intersections of science, medicine, and politics. My current book project Medical Independence: How Benjamin Rush Created American Medicine, 1769-1813 explores the way in which Benjamin Rush and his students promoted medical theories they believed were best suited to the new republic. In doing so Rush not only founded a distinctly American medical profession but used his position an expertise to argue for a range of political and social reforms in the name of a healthy republic. In short, this book argues that Rush’s work in science and medicine played a foundational role in the American transition from colony to nation and the social structures that characterized it in the nineteenth century.

Scholarly Activity

Selected Publications

• "'My Master and Friend': Social Networks and Professional Identity in American Medicine, 1789-1815," Social History of Medicine, 34.3 (August 2021): 742-765. https://academic.oup.com/shm/advance-article/doi/10.1093/shm/hkaa016/5861180?guestAccessKey=2a310add-535e-4008-b457-47e374f505fe
• “Making Endemic Goiter and American Disease, 1800-1820,” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 76.3 (July 2021): 239-263. https://academic.oup.com/jhmas/article/76/3/239/6307190?guestAccessKey=346a1aea-4646-4dba-bc68-e88ce8e32cde
• “Recommended for ‘frequent perusal’ and ‘improving the science of medicine’: Benjamin Rush’s American editions and the circulation of medical knowledge in the Early Republic,” Endeavour, 45.1-2 (March-June 2021) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016093272100020X
• “A Different Kind of Expert,” Nursing Clio (June 25, 2020) https://nursingclio.org/2020/06/25/a-different-kind-of-expert/

Selected Presentations

• “Sense and Amiability: Julia Rush and the character of American medicine, 1776-1815,” American Association for the History of Medicine Annual Meeting, Saratoga Springs, NY, April 21-24, 2022
• “Iodine and Endemic Goiter: A Specific Therapy in a Changing Medical World,” History of Science Society Annual Meeting, Virtual, November 18-21, 2021
• “The Social Side of Medicine: Benjamin and Julia Rush’s Roles in Promoting ‘American Medicine,’” Great Lakes History Conferences, Virtual, October, 22, 2021
• “our part of the country being very sickly”: Creating American Medicine Through Patient Correspondence,” Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science annual meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 6, 2020
• "Same Story, Different Setting: Using Goiter to Understand Calls for American Science at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century," History of Science Society Annual Meeting, Utrecht, Netherlands, July 24, 2019
• “Who You Know: How Social and Educational Networks fostered Professional Identity Among American Doctors, 1780-1815,” American Philosophical Society, "Networks: The Creation and Circulation of Knowledge from Franklin to Facebook," Philadelphia, PA, June 7, 2019
• "The Medical Network: Social Ties and Expertise in American Medicine, 1780-1820," American Association for the History of Medicine Annual Meeting, Columbus, OH, April 27, 2019

Other Professional Experiences

Selected Fellowships and Honors:

• Research Fellowship, Consortium for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine (2022)
• Faculty Research Grand, Northwest Missouri State University (2022)
• Research Fellowship, Consortium for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine(declined) (2018)
• Sloan Prize for an outstanding graduate student in the Notre Dame History and Philosophy of Science program (2018)
• Albert M. Greenfield Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, Library Company of Philadelphia (2017)
• Short-Term Fellowship, Philadelphia Area Consortium for the History of Science (now Consortium for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine) (2014-15)
• Travel Grant, C. Wood Institute for the History of Medicine at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia(2014)

Professional Organization Membership:

• The History of Science Society
• American Association for the History of Medicine

Other

• Regional Coordinator – National History Day